Michael Carney, who is originally from Belle Lake, Dunmore Road, and a former student of De La Salle College from where he went to the University of Dublin (Trinity College), is to work with McKinsey & Company, who are partners on the feasibility study and pilot project for the Global e-Schools Initiative along with Intel and the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force. The initiative – to be formally launched in December at a summit of world leaders in Geneva - is intended to lend a global dimension to efforts to bridge the so-called digital divide and will focus on using information and communications technology (ICT) to improve the quality of education and provide a community-based centre of learning and access connectivity point. The initiative will also strengthen communities through connectivity and ICT training.
According to Mr. Carney, who is currently based at the Dept. of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources in Dublin but will later be assigned to a role in Latin America, Asia or Africa, the key objective is to capitalise fully on the potential of ICT to contribute to human development, including the elimination of gender disparities.
“This breakthrough is currently compromised by great unevenness in the spread of these technologies. In fact, the Internet and e-mail have, if anything, only served to heighten the gaps between rich and poor worldwide.” Mr. Carney says that the UN takes the view that improving access to ICT through schools is logical for a number of reasons.
“The main focus of the initiative is on empowering local communities in developing countries with the help of information and communications technologies. It is hoped that the focus on education will ensure universal approval and transcend all barriers to societal and economic transformation.
“The aim is not only to enhance education, but also to use the strengthened education infrastructure for providing community access to global information networks. This would significantly improve the ability of local communities, including those in rural and remote areas, to benefit from connectivity and knowledge in diverse areas such as e-government, health and commerce,” Mr. Carney continued.
Relishing the prospect of working on a truly global project, Mr Carney is also enthusiastic about helping some of the poorest communities on earth. “The developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean all have people living in dreadful poverty and lack of access to education only serves to ensure that the vicious circle remains unbroken.
Those fortunate enough to be in school in these areas share their teachers with 40- 50 other children, have limited access to books and do not have teachers with adequate education themselves, or training in how to teach.
“This situation is unlikely to improve without major intervention and improvement in educational systems in the developing world. In addition, assuming current growth trends continue, by 2015 these ramshackle educational systems will have to support an additional 700 million to one billion new children. These children will require at least an extra 20 million new teachers and a doubling of the number of classrooms and resources,” he added.
“I believe new technologies can assist hugely. For example, ICT can provide training for future teachers across geographies and time zones to bridge skill gaps as well as distance-coaching and mentoring of young teachers. ICT can also provide distance education to students who otherwise would not attend classes and ICT-enabled schools can offer a cost-effective, easy means to disseminate information rich content for use by teachers, students and education administrators. The technologies can also play a role in standardising student assessments.
“The model we are developing is based on ‘knowledge acquisition’ rather than ‘knowledge transfer’. The aspirations that the UN have for the Global e-Schools Initiative are ambitious but they are no more ambitious than the agreed Millennium Development Goals of battling poverty, disease, environmental degradation, and war.”
The Waterford man also feels that the UN is wellplaced to act as an honest broker and protect the interests of developing countries. “One of the concerns voiced when the Internet began to grow was that US multinational corporations would use the new technologies to access and possibly exploit Arab, Islamic and developing world markets where five billion of the world’s population live.
The developing countries need what are largely US technologies but they do not necessarily welcome US companies. There are therefore clear opportunities for a trusted intermediary like the UN to mediate between the US technologies and these countries.”
Quelle: Waterford News
